2nd Chief Financial Officers Meeting

Priorities on the CFO's Agenda

Today, the CFO’s agenda is extremely broad and multidisciplinary, as it includes subjects and priorities that go well beyond cost control.

With the company’s sustainable growth and value creation among their chief responsibilities, CFOs have to understand not only macroeconomic and sociopolitical context, but also industry trends and changes in the field. CFOs therefore play an essential role in the essential digital transformation businesses must make: they have to address subjects related to the challenges, opportunities and risks posed by the digital environment, such as big data, online security, technological innovations and the definition of new business models.

Some traditional subjects are still fundamental to the role, such as business finance and choosing tools aligned with the strategy and vision of the board and the shareholders. This is especially true against the backdrop of change and increasingly diversified systems. Other important challenges CFOs must monitor more closely than ever include internationalization, expansion and acquisition of new assets, talent and business in other parts of the world.

They must do all this without forgetting the importance of their role in strategic decisions and corporate governance, plus relations between the CEO, the board of directors, the audit committee, regulators, investors and company stakeholders. From this perspective, the role of the CFO is indispensable for instilling trust and transparency in businesses’ governing bodies.

The IESE Business School’s second Chief Financial Officers Meeting, jointly organized with Deloitte and SAP, aims to spark dialogue between CFOs, entrepreneurs, managers and academics so that together they can reflect on their professional concerns, as well as long-term trends.